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- Convenor:
-
Ben Jones
(University of East Anglia)
Send message to Convenor
- Formats:
- Papers
- Stream:
- Global inequalities
- Sessions:
- Friday 2 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Available research on education focuses on learning outcomes and economic impact, or on the spread of modern attitudes. This panel invites papers developing these themes as well as bringing new perspectives to the study of youth and education.
Long Abstract:
Across the globe there is a generation of young women and men who are the first in their family to go to school. Most do not have jobs. What changes are these educated, often unemployed, youth bringing to social and political developments? In what ways does their education reconfigure gender relations? What concepts and categories do youth use to understand what they are doing? Available research on education in poorer parts of the world focuses mostly on learning outcomes and economic impact, or on the spread of modern attitudes. This panel invites papers that develop and unsettle these themes.
We welcome papers looking at youth, work and education, including the following themes:
- the role of institutions in shaping the lives of younger people, both inside and outside the education sector
- economic developments as they relate to young men and women.
- on-the-ground explorations of the lives of young men and women with a particular interest in generating new insights in looking at youth, education and un(der)employment.
- the role of education in changing gender relations
- new youth-generated cultural, political and social formations
- inter-generational research looking at the impact of education, work and unemployment
The panel welcome papers that are predominantly empirical or theoretical in their orientation, in different styles and at various stages of development.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 2 July, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
Burkinabe girls across the social spectrum prioritise education over marriage. While resistance is not always possible for adolescent girls, changing attitudes towards marriage are indicative of changing gender norms, and ultimately social change through education.
Paper long abstract:
Research has emphasised the continuity of traditional gender norms and attitudes in Burkina Faso (Cavin, 1998; Samb and Ridde, 2018). Through in-depth interviews with 20 girls aged 14 to 18, where they were asked about their notion of wellbeing, their experiences with schooling , health and ideals for the future, this paper seeks to understand the place of marriage and education in adolescent girls’ aspirations, and in their ambitions for ‘social success’. In this study we find that adolescent girls view schooling and marriage as two continuous competitive factors. Being educated is associated with ‘success as women’ and a key aspect of well-being, while early marriage can be a barrier to this imagined success. Girls use schooling as a strategy to delay marriages, and education is perceived to allow for more equal and successful marriages. Most importantly, the majority of adolescent girls interviewed, whether they were in or out of school, had primary or secondary school level, lived in rural or urban areas, positioned school as a priority over marriage. Our findings indicate that Burkinabe girls across the social spectrum are becoming resistant to traditional values, questioning what is socially expected of them as women. While resistance is not always possible for adolescent girls, changing attitudes towards marriage are indicative of changing gender norms, and ultimately social change.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines gender norms and values that affect girls’ chances to complete school. It was found that despite a wider acceptance of the benefits of girls’ education among parents, existing gendered practices and beliefs often prevent girls from accessing and completing secondary schools.
Paper long abstract:
Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries of the world and has an adult literacy rate of 32% (UNESCO 2018). Since the end of the civil war in 2002, serious efforts have been made to improve access to education and enhance gender equality in schools. However, despite enhanced educational opportunities for girls, equal access to education remains a challenge, especially in rural areas of the country (Galloway & Cannonier, 2019). The literature shows that significant gender disparities in average years of schooling and quality and types of education persist in the country (Menzel, 2019, Schneider, 2019, Ahene et al. 2019), connected with wider patterns of gendered inequality in the society at large. (Schneider, 2019; Coulter 2009). This paper examines contradictory gender norms and values that affect girls’ chances to complete school in rural areas of the country. It was found that despite a wider acceptance of the benefits of girls’ education among parents and teachers, existing gendered practices and beliefs often prevent girls from accessing and completing secondary schools. The paper draws on the qualitative data from a 2 year long longitudinal study conducted in rural Sierra Leone.
Paper short abstract:
Educated youth are engaging in agriculture despite the prevailing negative youth and agricultural narratives. The 'New Achikumbe Elite' in Malawi are interacting and exploiting their capital assets as a means of navigating pathways and own identities as they pursue agrarian livelihoods.
Paper long abstract:
Education, particularly, high levels of education often present as exit points in the discussion of youth, agriculture and un(der)employment. The agricultural narrative; young people are not interested in agriculture comes along with discussions that as young people attain higher levels of education, they opt for non-agrarian livelihoods. As a result, agriculture engagement is associated, when it comes to younger generation, with low to no levels of education. The implications is that the current advocacy for attaining high literacy levels and implementing educational policies that advance free primary and secondary education in countries such as Malawi, implies education continues to displace agriculture in discussions and debates of youth and un(der)employment. Using my field work data of 2018, I explore an emerging group of young people who despite having higher levels of education are engaging in agriculture ’new achikumbe elite’ who are the new and upcoming young and educated in some cases employed youth who are entering agriculture as a means of supporting their livelihood. I use 12 case studies to explore their entry and experiences with agriculture in Malawi. I argue that, although still in its infancy, the 'new achikumbe elite' could potentially be the emergence of a new class of young agrarian capitalist in Malawi. They, unlike being subsistence farmers, are commercially oriented and are buying land instead of relying on inherited land for access while leveraging the benefits of higher levels of education to access other capital assets such as agricultural investment funds and skills.